Mid-season review: Breaking Bad

Thursday

Aug 18, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 18, 2011 at 5:28 PM

From time to time, I like to check in with the most exceptional shows to reassess where things are and where they're headed. This week I took a look at another excellent season of "Breaking Bad," which recently finalized a deal for 16 final episodes after this season.

From time to time, I like to check in with the most exceptional shows to reassess where things are and where they're headed. This week I took a look at another excellent season of "Breaking Bad," which recently finalized a deal for 16 final episodes after this season.

In Sunday's episode, Walt (Bryan Cranston) let his pride and his inability to shut up whenever he's under the influence - in a nice scene that's reminiscent of Season 2's tequila incident - deepen the danger for himself, his family, Jesse (Aaron Paul) and even his employer, Gus (Giancarlo Esposito).

Gus is basically the Steve Jobs of meth kingpins, although I doubt Jobs could wield a box cutter like Gus can. He's cornered the market by producing a far superior product - keeping with the analogy, blue meth is like the iPad - and uses his cunning business sense to get the most out of his employees.

Which brings us to Jesse, whom Gus brought back from the bowels of fatal apathy with a little bit of theater involving a fake heist. Jesse believes he's a hero, reinvigorating his commitment to his job(s).

This season has focused more on Jesse than our anti-hero protagonist, Walt. It's appropriate, even if three-time Emmy winner Cranston spends less time on screen, because Jesse's guilt - much like Walt's pride - makes everyone vulnerable.

Jesse likes to think he's a badass, but this brand of vicious criminal enterprise isn't something he can stomach. And I predict things are only going to intensify for poor, impetuous Jesse now that he's a pawn Gus can use against Walt.

Gus has outmaneuvered Walt since Gale's demise. It's led to Walt feeling even more emasculated at work while his estranged wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), has virtually castrated him at home - apart from their tryst last episode where she made Walt a bottom.

All this led to Walt's drunken decision to correct Hank's (Dean Norris) assumption that Gale was Heisenberg. Now Hank's focus has turned on the Los Pollos Hermanos (Hermanos? Does Gus have a silent partner/brother?) franchise.

If and when the DEA starts sniffing around, Gus will immediately suspect Walt out of either malice or unprofessionalism. Does Walt have another Houdini, er, Heisenberg, trick to escape?